- khaki_dojo
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khaki_dojo's Journal
... a little randomosity ...
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19Nov 09
... yes, I do still exist, I just don't blog anymore.
- Posted Nov 19, 2009 9:41 am PT
- Category: Other
- 3 Comments
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25Apr 08
... my queue is currently 100% empty, but I may not get a chance to check it until Monday. I'm basically working 48 hours straight, so I don't have time to sleep let alone do anything else.
But everything is good right now -- all quotes, notes, trivia, allusions, cast, crew and summaries have been cleaned out completely. Have a good weekend everyone. Okay, here's something totally random before I toddle off for the night ... I only just now figured out how to add the beginning tagline. I've been looking at those for weeks wondering how the heck people did it. And it turns out I can put pictures up there too! Seriously, you can lead an old dog to technology but you can't make it learn.
- Posted Apr 25, 2008 10:54 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 3 Comments
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21Apr 08
As I sit here at 3:25 AM clearing my queue, waiting for my toenails to dry, watching Matlock and eating Twizzlers, I'm once again inspired to remind submitters of the TV.com guidelines regarding various things. Me being me, I'm too lazy to repost things I've posted in the past, so I'll provide links.
TV.com Guidelines Center: This is the link for the official TV.com guidelines regarding submissions. All editors are required to adhere to these guidelines.
Quotes, Quotes and More Quotes: Quotes seem to be particularly confusing. What goes in bold, what goes in italics, etc, etc. I've expanded on the TV.com guidelines in a previous post. The explanation does not deviate in any way from the actual guidelines -- it just includes more specific examples, along with an example of what the HTML coding looks like. Something I do for my guides is use the full name of the speaker whenever it is known (ie. Olivia Benson rather than simply Benson or Olivia). This is not part of the official guidelines so I will not decline a submission if it isn't done, but I would appreciate it if it is done at submission because that means it's less time I need to take editting the queue, which means it will show up that much quicker.
Criteria of Acceptance: Episode Submissions for NEW, unaired shows...: Basically, what this says is that in order to submit a new episode, all submissions must include a URL verifying the information as well as two of the following three: Episode Name, Episode Summary, Episode Airdate. This means that there aren't supposed to be any submissions for episodes without a title and a summary. If there aren't two of the three, it will not be approved. As an editor, I can't add those either.
That covers the major things. As to the minor things ... please don't include page breaks or line breaks when making submissions. When you hit enter, the site actually includes it automatically -- including them with the submissions adds extra unneeded white space. The first time I'll edit it myself and advise in the comments. After that, I'm very likely to decline the submission. Same with other HTML issues, or minor things. If it can be fixed in the queue, I'll initially edit and approve it and advise. After that, I will likely decline. If I can't figure out what the heck the submission says (I've had those), I'll also decline because I need to know what's being said. If I can't figure it out, odds are other people can't either.
There are certain things that are left up to editor's discretion. I will not add names for guest stars until the episode airs. There are a number of reasons for this -- the information can often be considered spoilerish, names can change (I've yet to find a 100% reliable source -- even network press releases can often contain inaccurate information -- this is also why I won't add names for 'recurring' characters), etc, etc, etc. I also will not add starring cast until the episode airs because it can't be 100% verified. I'd rather have the information not appear until the episode airs and be correct than be incorrect ahead of time and need to be fixed. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I will not include international airdates in notes. The primary reason for this is that there is really nowhere to draw the line -- if I include the Canadian airdate for an American show, I can't really justify not including the Argentinian, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, German or Mexican airdate as well. So the only airdate I will use is the airdate of origin on the original network. (The one exception I've made in the past was for a cancelled Canadian series where episodes aired on French television months before airing on the original network because that was a rare situation.)
And as two final notes to submissions and the like, do not copy and paste information from other sources. This includes thefutoncritic, the IMDb, TV guides, etc, etc, etc. That information is copyrighted to those other sources and cannot be used at TV.com. All information submitted to TV.com must be 100% original. Secondly? thefutoncritic, the IMDb and Wikipedia are not primary resources. thefutoncritic and the IMDb are frequently incorrect when it comes to guest cast and character names. They're a decent back-up or verification source, but should never be the only source of information. And Wikipedia ... also good only for back-up. Anyone can and does edit Wikipedia, and unfortunately, the information is not always correct.
Ah, all the business over with, so my final note of all ... as many of you know, I've been having some serious connection issues lately. Those appear to be fixed. Staff was aware of this, and I'm very thankful that they were so understanding -- I love the people here.
If you've sent me a PM and haven't heard back, I'm slowly sifting through an extremely long list of PMs and trying to figure out what I have and haven't responded to. I'm very bad for that. If I owe you a PM, please feel free to shoot me a line and let me know that I'm behind on my responses -- it takes me forever to sift through those for some reason. My queue is completely cleared out, so there's nothing pending in there right now. - Posted Apr 21, 2008 3:48 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 5 Comments
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2Mar 08
Regarding queues and such first ... my queue is a weird little child these days with random items from three to four weeks ago occasionally popping up. It is current through to March 2 right now, so if you have anything that I should have pending, please let me know.
Any e-mails I've been sent in the last couple of months seemed to have disappeared into some netherworld of e-mail Heck, so please forgive me. I also seem to be losing PMs, which I'm digging through slowly, so if I haven't responded, I either didn't get it, or am still looking for it.
Regarding the last blog post about the cell phone ... apparently they now have unlimited mobile browsing. But no one could be bothered to tell me. *SIGH* Annoying.
And as a side note? Before submitting to one of my guides, please be familiar with the TV.com submission guidelines. I've had to decline a lot of submissions in the last little while because they don't meet the submission guidelines. I'm fairly easy-going -- if it's something that is my personal preference, I'll edit it in the queue myself. But if it's site guidelines and it's repetitive ... I will decline and state why. TV.com keeps their guidelines at: TV.com Guidelines Center
- Posted Mar 2, 2008 2:38 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 0 Comments
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17Jan 08
Here where I am, it's 6:42 AM. That's morning. That's wrong. I don't really like anything prior to 8:00 AM. Heck, I prefer 10:00 AM. But I've been up for four hours. Doing what, you ask? Well, you didn't, but if you're still reading this I assume you want to know. Talking to my cell phone provider. I was going to call my credit card company today too, but decided after all this that I would probably bite some poor guy's head off (see previous rant on credit cards).
I couldn't sleep when I woke up around 2ish, so I thought I'd call and check on my balance. I never get the bill, so I call when I want to know (or wait for the automatic debit, which I went with because I never get the bill). My mind has blocked out the specifics, but it was over $500. How, you ask? (Well, again, you didn't, but you know the drill.) Mobile Internet usage. The interesting thing? The bill was far lower in October and November, when Internet usage was rampant, but it got much less use in December -- when the fees went through the roof.
So we get call #1. Talked to a representative in billing. It was before 3:00 AM at this point, 6:00 AM their time, so not much was open. Asked her about the bill, asked about cancellation (not because I wanted to, but because I want to know what my options are), even willing to pay the cancellation fee if I go that way. (Which I may.) She couldn't give me much information at all, which is funny, because she had access to every question I needed answered (and yes, without getting a bill I *have* called enough times to know exactly what department does what over there). But whatever. That sucked up ... oh, about an hour of my day.
The department I needed opened at 5:00 AM my time, so I figured I'd just stay awake for the next hour or so and putter around. Alright, I came here. Working on my queues, answering my PMs, learned my e-mails aren't going through (technology hates me) ... working on the old desktop so I have to go grab my laptop because what I need is actually on there. Whatever. I'll do that later. Call in and get ... well, I think it was billing again. I tell them I need to speak with the Internet people. They transfer me to Mohammed, who promptly disconnects the call. Did I mention that I spent eight minutes on hold waiting to get to Mohammed?
Alright, let's call back in again. I get billing, who says they'll transfer me to the Internet group. The next agent is not with the Internet group. She's with some other random department. She says she'll transfer me. After eight to ten minutes on hold (again), I get disconnected. So I call back, again, and this time I go with tech support. They actually got me to the Internet people. After over a half an hour with them (really nice guy, but he couldn't really answer my question) they opted to just credit the overages since they couldn't figure out where they were coming from. Well, that's nice, but I didn't ask for that. (I know, I'm complaining about free money. Go figure.) What I wanted to know was what the @#$% happened. No answer for that. But still, really nice guy. I asked him to block Internet access from the phone, because someone is running up the Internet and it isn't me. Heck, I'm so anal from my cell phone I refuse to access non-mobile sites, and even then I barely check my e-mail.
So Internet transfers me to tech support, who does some sort of weird cycling thing on my phone. I was all happy and good at that point (well, as happy as I can be at 6:00 AM after spending the wee hours of the morning talking to these people) until I decide to make sure the Internet isn't working and find out that hey, I can get online. Nuh-uh. So I call right back and get billing, who transfers me to tech support, who then puts a total block on all Internet access. I can't even access the provider's automatic phone site now (which I'm okay with -- I asked for that). But I forgot to ask about the cancellation thing, so I need to phone back again. I figure what the heck -- get it all out of the way now.
So I phone back and get customer service. I ask to talk to cancellation. I make it clear I don't want to cancel, I was just advised to speak to them with some questions. After typing things and taking about five minutes to transfer me, I get another guy. This guy immediately tells me that he's going to be able to help me cancel my phone. I don't WANT to cancel my phone. I don't have a land line; it's my only means of communication. So I explain that. He keeps trying to help me but really, I just want to know what I would need to pay if I DID cancel my phone. ($200 cancellation fee plus one month's service if you're wondering.) Over and over I make it clear that I don't want to cancel, but he keeps offering to cancel and to credit me $150 of the $200 so that I will only have to pay $50 for the cancellation. At that point I said screw it, and asked for a supervisor. He never asked me why, but placed me on hold for about seven minutes (hey, the phone has a timer) so he could 'explain'.
How can he explain that the reason I want a supervisor is because he wasn't listening to me when he didn't listen? So he told her I wanted a supervisor because I wanted to cancel over the Internet thing. NO! I wanted a supervisor so I could pass on feedback about him! The supervisor decides to give me $50 (which, again, I didn't want -- I just wanted to pass on the feedback!), probably to shut me up at this point since I've basically been talking to them for four hours (and I imagine the notes in my account are horrendous). And she thanks me for my feedback, but suggests it was a language barrier. Where? I speak English. He spoke English. His was accented, but I understood him perfectly, and I know he understood me when he was paying attention. His problem was he wasn't listening, not that I couldn't understand what he was saying. Heck, *I've* got an accent. And people can understand me. Everyone else there could.
And I feel like I got nothing accomplished. I didn't want the credits. They were nice, but that's not what I wanted. I wanted to know what the @#$% I was being billed for. And they don't know. They can't explain it. So I'm thinking today or tomorrow I may shop around. Unfortunately, there's only one other semi-decent option in this town, and I don't like them either. *SIGH* I hate technology.
Oh, and did I mention the fun thing? For the last few days my cell phone provider has been delivering messages to the wrong people. I'm not sure right now how many people I owe apologies to because they got messages not intended for them. Thank God I wasn't messaging anything that was incredibly private or confidential.
- Posted Jan 17, 2008 7:06 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 10 Comments
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10Nov 07
... you would laugh. After six months of perfect health (absolutely perfect!), I manage to have snagged myself one nasty cold. I don't get any ill effects except for two: I'm stuffed up beyond all reasonable belief, and I sound like Elmer Fudd on methamphetimines. Picture Elmer. Make him female. And make him sound even more Fudd-y than usual. That's me.
On the bright side, I get extremely energetic when I have a cold. The amount of work I'm likely to get done in the next few days is truly amazing. And everyone will let me go to it, because when you sound like I do, people avoid you.
Or laugh hysterically.
- Posted Nov 10, 2007 11:40 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 10 Comments
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21Oct 07
Apparently it's in thanks for all the effort I went to assisting them with their transaction.
Which makes me worry. Apparently I'm suffering from some form of degenerative memory condition, because I don't remember helping them with their transaction. I realise I'm forgetful, but am I *that* forgetful? Did I sandwich it in between work shifts? Luckily they apologised for taking so long to get in touch with me -- the presidential library and museum former director hope I'm not angry with them.
If there's one downside to the Internet, it's all the scams out there. I truly hope most people are smart enough to not get involved with them. For anyone who has ever wondered, I'd like to offer some totally unsolicited advice ... DON'T. The sad thing about this modern world we live in is that when something sounds too good to be true ... it is. I'm not saying there aren't wonderful opportunities out there and wonderful people, but an e-mail addressed to 'Dear Friend' is never good. I only noticed it because I occasionally check to see if anything useful is in my junk folder. I've got four e-mails promising me either authorised or certified bank drafts ... no, wait, I checked the vague subject, that was five ... and one offering me viagra and cialis (again, spammers ... wrong gender). The only mildly useful thing was a monthly newsletter for a site that I vaguely recall having a username and password on.
Speaking of sites, I supposed I should check out Chase Visa. They claim my statement is available for viewing. For what, I don't know -- they can't get my name right either, and I don't have a Chase Visa.
Yes, another piece of junk. I can't remember the last time I got mail that was actually for me ... that wasn't a chain letter. Because no matter how many of those things you send, little Timmy O'Toole is still stuck down that darned well.- Posted Oct 21, 2007 1:57 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 9 Comments
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18Oct 07
Yeah, I've said it before. But it's true. Any time I've ever had a problem with anything, staff has taken care of it.
So I just wanted to say thank you.
- Posted Oct 18, 2007 5:43 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 5 Comments
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2Oct 07
Each year when the new seasons start up, I get a crop of episode submissions for the guides, many of which do not meet TV.com criteria (which you can find at the forum post titled Criteria of Acceptance: Episode Submissions for NEW Unaired Shows...). All episode submissions must meet those guidelines -- and these are rules that need to be followed by not only the average submitter, but also editors and trusted users.
What are the guidelines? Simply this -- any submissions for new, unaired episodes must provide a source link (in the comments field), and must have two of the following:
- Episode Title
- Episode Airdate
- Episode SummaryWhich means that if it doesn't have two of the three, it shouldn't be there. And UNKNOWN, TBA, etc, are not valid episode titles. I've never seen a situation where the summary and airdate are known but not a title -- a far more likely scenario is that the airdate and title are known but not the summary, or the airdate and summary are known but not the title.
And any submissions for any episode that hasn't aired yet (according to the TV.com guidelines in that link, which are provided by the administration) must be accompanied by a link. And the IMDb is not a valid source.
Thank you very much.
- Posted Oct 2, 2007 3:06 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 6 Comments
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25Sep 07
I'm watching one right now.
Luckily TV.com has provided an extensive list of fall premieres for people like me who get confused and only half pay attention -- you can find it here.I must say, I've been rather disappointed so far. Not with the premieres, but with the lack of press. The only reason I figured out Bones was on tonight was because I was flipping through the cable guide earlier double checking airtimes for SVU. Actually, the only premiere that I have seen get a lot of press for (and, admittedly, I haven't been watching a lot of TV lately) was SVU. Same with NCIS. Cane, of course, got hours and hours of promos. I'll check it out (simply based on the fact that I've seen over an hour of previews -- the same preview, mind you, but previews nonetheless), but I don't know what I'll think of it until I watch it.
- Posted Sep 25, 2007 8:02 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 9 Comments
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13Sep 07
And is that one E or two? Agreable? Agreeable? It's late, I'm tired, I don't give a flying fig.
Anyhoo, the deal is this. I've got this ... well, let's call it a friend (I'm feeling charitable at the moment -- it's been a good day). A few months ago, I agreed to do something for this friend. But this friend ... I'm not real certain sometimes this person is still a friend. (Various reasons, which I won't go into.) I haven't finished what I said I'd do yet, and every once in awhile I'm tempted not to. Other friends tell me not to bother, but there's two things to it ... one, I'm enjoying doing what it is, and two, I made a promise. When I make a promise, I stick to it. After all, what do we, as people, have if we don't have our word? Isn't it our ability to perform the concept of rational thought what makes us different than other animals out there? And I admit, there's a small, petty little part of me that takes a perverse pleasure in knowing that I can keep my word no matter what.
Anyway, bygones. (That's about the only thing I gleaned from numerous episodes of Ally McBeal.) Tonight is for Supernatural. I picked it up on Tuesday (which, depending on whether or not you consider the fact that I haven't retired from Wednesday yet, may be considered yesterday), and I've seen probably 1/3 of the episodes. It's not just a well done series, but it features a number of Canadian actors, some of which I haven't seen in years. Being filmed in British Columbia, it's a veritable who's who of former Madison and Cold Squad cast members. I'm starting with Playthings, which is the first episode of the second season I haven't seen. And I no longer have to record the repeats on SPACE every Friday at 7:00 PM. Unfortunately, I have to wait for October 4 (well, 5 for me) for season three.
Hmm ... there was something else ... what was it ...
Oh, yeah. I wanted to take a moment to say a big THANK YOU! to everyone who contributes to the guides that I edit, and to all the Trusted Users as well. You all know who you are.
(That, and there are far too many wonderful people out there to name -- and I tend to forget names.) And since I'm chuckling right now, a new feature of the blog ... 'Useless Junk Mail of the Blog'. The top three on the list right now include the following subjects:
Two cases of paper for $70, and other deals too! (from Staples)
Thanks, we accepted your business loan request(I have three of these)
US $129.95 Viagra (Sildenafil) 100mg X 60 pills buy now (from Antonio Payton)
Aside from the fact that I can't figure out where Staples (or Blockbuster, for that matter) got my e-mail, I just don't get the rampaging Viagra or business loan e-mails. I've no use for the Viagra (I'm the wrong gender), and I'm too busy working for someone else's business to get my own. I kind of miss the old days when I got e-mails about graduating high school or getting a mortgage. I've done the first and don't need the second, but at least they were more useful.- Posted Sep 13, 2007 1:04 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 3 Comments
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3Sep 07
Is it simply the money factor? I've always wondered this. All my life, I've done volunteer work. It's ranged from candy striping to helping out with webpages (which reminds me, someone I know wants help with one) to writing information up/down for friends to helping people move, etc, etc, etc. Is it not work because I don't get paid, or is it not play because it's not necessarily for fun? Or is it something for which there is an exchange of goods and services? If I help someone move and they take me to dinner, have I technically worked because there's a reward involved? Or was I playing? And what is TV.com? Work or play? It's kind of a job we don't get paid for, because there are certain rules and responsibilities. So am I working pro-bono, or playing?
I wonder that occasionally. I wonder a lot of things occasionally. I'm sitting watching an episode of Oz the other night with a friend, and the discussion of drinking and driving came up. There was a recent news story regarding the death of a six-year-old boy. I'm trying to find a reference, but I don't know names (or even locations). But my friend said the driver certainly didn't pay for his crime -- he was given a fine. I believe it was $1100. (The topic came up because the prisoner in question had committed a similar crime, and I believe the sentence was 14 years.) In the paper the other day they were selling some sort of pure-bred pup for $1200. Is it just me, or is there something wrong with the fact that a dog is worth more than the courts consider a child to be worth?
Mind boggling, it is. Anyway, as we all know, the fall season is starting soon. SVU and WAT will be starting relatively soon -- September 25 for SVU, and the WAT date escapes me right now. CI will premiere October 4 on USA, and the original L&O isn't back until mid-season. Some cast changes, of course. Julianne Nicholson will be off CI on maternity leave, and temporarily replaced with Alicia Witt. Adam Beach is joining SVU. Milena Govich and Fred Dalton Thompson are both off L&O -- Jeremy Sisto will be the new cop, and Linus Roache will take on the role of the new E.A.D.A. since Sam Waterston's character now has Thompson's character's old job.
- Posted Sep 3, 2007 11:45 pm PT
- Category: N/A
- 8 Comments
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31Aug 07
Well, not yet, I guess. It's still August for another ... 19ish hours. Haven't blogged for awhile. Been insanely busy. Work, personal life, intermittent Internet connection caused by freakish weather patterns and the like. It seems to be good now, at least, that's what they tell me.
So what's been up? Not much. Watchinga lot of Murder, She Wrote lately. Finished the first season of Bones awhile back. Borrowed the first season of Angel off a friend. I've never seen the show, and I've heard so many good things about it, I figured what the heck. I'm not generally into vampires (funny, I know -- I'm a horror buff, but I don't do vampires). Lost a friend last week, went to the funeral today. Another friend had to put a beloved pet to sleep, which was also very sad. Kind of got into an odd fight with another friend (the kind where they do something, you get mad, but you don't deal with it and simmer until it goes away or you break something). Got repeatedly frustrated at work. The highlight of my week was actually forking out some serious change to buy new tires. I didn't want to, but I had to. Why, you ask? (Well, you didn't, but I've got a very active imagination, so I'm pretending you did.) Turns out that when you kerb your car one too many times, you'll blow a tire. I know exactly what happened, too. I was turning into a lane, the guy in the other lane was turning WAY too wide and was in my lane, and I ended up kerbing the car as I was trying to avoid hitting him. (Should've just hit the bugger.) So my tire blew as I was exiting the highway onto the off ramp.
And if there's one thing I learned from the whole experience, it was this: Buy a big car. A big, heavy beast. Something with some oomph to it. The only thing that kept me from causing a major road accident was the fact that my car was pretty much the heaviest car ON the road. If it was one of those light little new-fangled jobbies, I would never have been able to keep control of it -- the wind was whipping as it was, and it was hard enough to keep control of The Beast. But I ended up with two new tires, a new rim, and probably earned some points on my credit card because that's exactly where I put it. (It'll get paid off right away, but why not earn the points when I can?)
On the weird side of things, I caught an episode of Oprah today (not normally my thing, but it was on) and they were showing a repeat from last November of when she gave her audience each $1000 credit/debit cards and asked them to do something nice for other people. There were some truly amazing stories involved there. No matter how frustrating a day is, something like that can really restore a person's faith in humanity. There's a list of the donations in question on the show's website.
- Posted Aug 31, 2007 5:03 am PT
- Category: N/A
- 3 Comments
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27Jun 07
So all stars, guest stars, writers, directors, etc, are finished for that season. I forgot how much I liked that show. They just don't make them like that any more. I could easily sit down with my friend's ten-year-old child and watch most episodes of that show. (Not sayingI would, since I still think that, at ten, she can watch Shrek and enjoy it more than murder and mayhem.) Nowadays, what on primetime TV is really suitable for a child? Even George Lopez and According to Jim have adult themes. And I wouldn't let a child within ten miles of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, or anything on HBO. (Heck, I'm not old enough to watch some stuff on HBO.) Then I segued into Diagnosis Murder season two. Also appropriate for families. Heck, last thing my family really watched together (that was age appropriate) was Road to Avonlea. Now it's a toss up between a brutal action movie and a horror flick. Sometimes comedy works, though. We all sat down a few months ago to watch John Travolta and Arye Gross in The Experts.
I tried checking out some of those 'family' shows. The Olsen twins had that one in a coffee shop with Taylor Negron (well, they were in one the episode I saw). Kind of cute, but mostly irritating. Then there was The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. If I have to watch family television, I'll go for that one. I like Kim Rhodes, and I can tolerate the Sprouse twins. Works for me. Generally speaking, though, I admit I prefer more adult entertainment. No, not THAT kind of adult entertainment. (Get your minds out of the gutter.) I'm talking murder and mayhem. A little Magnum, a little Jessica Fletcher, a little Mark Sloan ... I don't ever want to meet these people, since everyone they know ends up dead (or suspected of murder ... sometimes they're even guilty!) (and yes, I know they're not real), but I like to watch them. Lately I've been watching The Dead Zone. Also very interesting. Considering it's filmed in British Columbia, I'm rather disappointed at the lack of local color. There are Canadian actors, but so far in season one they've been kind of short on well-known Canadian faces. But it's funny seeing how Anthony Michael Hall went from The Breakfast Club to The Dead Zone. Talk about a major change. (A good one, but a major change.) I remember seeing him in Diagnosis Murder years ago after not seeing him for awhile. Wow. And speaking of The Dead Zone (I'm on episode thirteen of season one as we talk), that child playing young Johnny (Evan Smith?)has the most amazing bone structure.
I'm sure there are other good family shows out there -- I just don't see a lot of them. I work more than I should (yet I want to work more, strangely enough), so when I'm home, it's some ungodly hour (like now), and all those family shows are over with. Or they're on Saturday, when I've agreed to work to lighten the work load of others (that, and I'm good at my job). I'm trying to figure out what to watch next, but a friend gave me the first season of Bones, so I may go through that. I've got about 40 hours of work to do on my computer, so Bones will help me get through a good chunk of that. Then maybe I'll stick some Murder, She Wrote back in.
Now for the rant section. It's after midnight and I'm doing my spring cleaning (yes, I know it's summer -- I was busy this spring), and I decided it was time to get around to my semi-annual credit card company phone calls. Now, I have the utmost respect for people who work at credit card calling centers. It's not easy to do that job. Let's be honest, people don't call their credit card companies to thank them for being so wonderful. But I can understand why some customers get so frustrated.
Credit Card #1 involved a guy who wasn't bright enough to put the mouthpiece anywhere near his mouth. Then he couldn't get the card number right. Six times. And when I asked the simple question 'when does the statement close', he said 'you won't have a payment due until August'. Well, I have a zero balance. I better not have a payment due in August. But that didn't answer my question. I wanted to know when the darned statement closed each month. Not a hard question. Relatively easy, actually. But I had to ask four times. In different phrasings. I finally got my answer. And oh, dear God, don't ever use the words 'grace period' with that man. I had to explain to him what a grace period was so I could find out how long it was. And mid-August? Not correct for a payment due. If I'd listened to him and not paid until mid-August, if I'd HAD a balance (which I didn't), I would have been late.
Credit Card #2 was better, but not great. A young lady this time. I'm assuming they put everything on a different screen and she's not overly familiar with where things are. Luckily I wasn't asking anything too difficult. (Well, I didn't think so.) Also no understanding of what a grace period was. Outsourcing, too, from the sounds of it. I've no objection to it; I just found it funny that I'm in Canada calling my Canadian credit card and I'm speaking with someone who is obviously in the very deep South. I love the accent, but I was laughing because the US is outsourcing to Canada and India, and apparently Canada is outsourcing to Arkansas. Here's a thought ... instead of the US hiring Canadians and Canadians hiring Americans, how about the Canadians hire the Canadians and the Americans hire the Americans? Frankly, as long as the person can answer my questions without me having to repeat it thirty times, I couldn't care less where they are. Accents don't bother me in the least -- I've gotten used to them over the years. Although I do find it funny when people try to have an accent that they're obviously faking. If you're going to fake it, do it right. Put a little backbone into it.
What did I learn from that experience? I need to call back. I didn't do what I was calling for (I want an updated cardmember agreement and to make sure I'm on the do-not-call-me list -- I'm okay with junk mail, but I hate the phone calls since I'm never home anyway) since the people I got scared me. I wasn't entirely certain I wanted to trust any request to a person who works for a credit card company and didn't understand the concept of a grace period. For anyone who doesn't know, the grace period is the period of time during which finance charges are not accrued on the balance. If you're Canadian, you only have a grace period on new purchases from the closing date to the due date, provided you pay each month's balance in full. That was a big change a couple of years back that actually got an hour long special on TV. The only financial television I've ever watched. As to why I wanted a cardmember agreement ... well, like the agreement states, usage of the card constitutes acceptance of the terms and conditions of the cardmember agreement, and I like to know what legally binding documents I'm signing (which is, essentially, what using the card means).
Why is it a rant? Because I hate having to deal with things more than once. Yet that's what I often have to do when I deal with my credit card organisation. I'd rather call and get bad news than call and get no news. Luckily, there's one hard and fast rule I've been able to live with so far -- pay all of my bills on time. Speaking of, my darned cell phone provider has sent me exactly five bills in the last year -- July 2006, January 2007 and March through May of 2007. Apparently there was no June bill. I owed them money, but they didn't bill me. (Luckily I know I owe them money, so I paid them.) But if I phone and ask, they tell me to go online. But then they tell me that if I go online, they will no longer send paper statements. I like the paper statements. They're few and far between, but I like them. I don't open them or read them until six months to a year later generally speaking (because I know how much it should be each month and I don't worry if the amount is right -- and I'm lazy), but I like knowing I have this huge pile of mail that, once or twice a year, I'll go through.
Ah, heck, let's be honest -- I hate dealing with anything. That's why I only open my mail a couple of times a year, why I only call my credit cards once or twice a year (always to get an updated agreement or to verify my interest rate), why I own movies I've never seen (and probably never will), and why I still have nearly 1000 VHS tapes in my collection -- I haven't dealt with any of it yet. And I really need to pay a visit to the used bookstore. But, once again, I've gotten lazy -- I can't be bothered to pick up boxes to put books in so that I can take them to the used bookstore. I'm at the point where I'm going to go to a convenience store on delivery night, bribe some boxes out of them, pack up the books, and just leave them there. I can't be bothered to stand in a line up haggling over how much they'll give me or how much credit I'll get, so they can just have them. Really -- the true benefit is getting all this junk out of my house.
- Posted Jun 27, 2007 11:59 pm PT
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10Jun 07
Which I've done twice this last week. Apparently people get confused when I wear a T-shirt. They're used to seeing me in shirts that button up the front. Just because I like a nice V-neck that buttons up, doesn't mean I can't wear a T-shirt occasionally. And then I get a little panicked. Everybody comments. Why? Is it because the T-shirt looks gawd-awful? Seems people are used to seeing me in business casual.
Speaking of, summertime is coming. That means we'll get some incredibly warm weather coming up. And people forget how to dress. I may work in an office, but apparently some people there have some serious difficulties understanding the concept of a dress code. The general rule we have at work is 'If you would wear it to a bar, it's not appropriate for work.' Well, what about people like me? Heck, I do business casual even if I'm at a bar. (Which I am not very often -- I've discovered that the average age of a bar patron these days is 19, which is a tad too young for me.) But when I go to work and see some little girl wearing a tube top, a mini-skirt and heels that are about four inches too high, it's rather irritating. They look nice, don't get me wrong, but it's not appropriate for an office setting.
Work has actually been rather amusing these days. Normally it can be frustrating, but lately I've been in a good mood. Not entirely sure why, it just happens from time to time. Spent a lot of my spare time hanging out with friends, which is nice. And for the last couple of days I've been at home, enjoying season two of The Commish. I forgot how much I liked this show. Stephen J. Cannell sure put out some nice works. I'm still waiting patiently for more seasons of Street Justice (and the remaining season of The Commish). Why do I get the feeling I'll never get them? It seems they put out a couple of seasons, and then forget about things. And how about Simon & Simon? And where the heck is Matlock?
Hmm. Another totally useless blog. Oh, well. What's the point of a blog if not to ramble on about things that just don't really matter where there are numerous potential viewers who have no idea who the heck I am who can all think I've gone completely nuts? Oh, well. As I'm fond of saying lately ... humor the crazy lady.
- Posted Jun 10, 2007 4:42 am PT
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26May 07
Well, at least for things I edit. I like new episodes, don't get me wrong, but summertime is great because it's both reruns (just in case something gets missed the first time) and a great time to work on the expired guides.
I'm waiting patiently for the day that some major network clues in to the fact that they could probably score decently on some summer programming.
- Posted May 26, 2007 3:15 am PT
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22May 07
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill
because they pissed me off.This is my mantra for the day. This day sucked. There's really no nice, friendly word for it. Why? Well, to make it short and sweet, let's just say that next time I get an urge to stop by a convenience store late at night, I won't. I managed to be part of a hold-up, get a death threat, and spend two hours hanging out with police all in one night.
And all I can think is that when I worked my way through college doing graveyards at the scuzziest store in town, I never got robbed. Not once. But once I'm a customer, apparently all bets are off.
On the bright side, at least the robber was relatively polite.
- Posted May 22, 2007 3:25 am PT
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8May 07
I've entered the 21st century. How, you ask? (Well, you didn't, but I'm going to tell you.) I finally bought an MP3 player. It's this little thing, about two-thirds the size of one of those Dentyne Ice or Dentyne Fire mints. Rather tiny, when you think about it. Yet on that little thing, you can fit 1 GB of music. It boggles my mind. I was sitting there just staring at it, wondering how something so tiny could hold so much information. I've loaded it up with music, including things I've never listened to before. I'm not much of a hip hop / rap / dance fan (a lot of it is well done, just not my taste -- I was raied on old country and Elvis, and never moved much beyond Bon Jovi), but that song about humps or lumps (both, really) by the Black Eyed Peas is quite catchy to listen to. So is Blink 182. I stick it in one ear while I'm working, and pause it when I need to. That way I still know what's going on, but it's easy to drown out people I don't want to listen to.
As a side issue, I'm going to post a link to an old blog (Quotes, quotes, and more quotes ...), and post a reminder ... if someone is going to submit cast changes to an aired episode, sources are ... well, mandatory. I get a lot of submissions to add or change information with no sources, and a lot of the time when I check them out, I find that the submission is not valid. (And yes, I do check every single one.) I also check every entry for copyright violations. When it comes to cast, very few things are copyrighted (there are exceptions -- if a site has posted incorrect character/actor names, that can be copyrighted because it's not an accurate list and is specific to that site), but for trivia, allusions, summaries, etc, things can be copyrighted. Almost every submission I've ever had to decline for Law & Order (all three) summaries has been rejected because it's a direct copy and paste job from another site. All submissions to summaries, notes, allusions and trivia must be in the submitter's own words.
As for quotes, TV.com has guidelines (HTML coding, etc) that must be followed. I have my own little foible, which is using full character names since there are occasions where more than one character will have the same first or last name, but I won't decline an entry based on that -- I'll make the correction myself when approving the submission. But if the HTML is off, the quote makes no sense, or it is not grammatically correct ... those are all required as part of the TV.com guidelines. If I can, I'll fix it and approve it (while advising the submitter), but eventually I will get to the point where I will decline it and ask the submitter to follow the site guidelines.
- Posted May 8, 2007 3:51 am PT
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28Apr 07
I do. Every time I look in my e-mail inbox these days, there's a new message from MySpace telling me that some friend of mine has posted a new blog and I should go check it out. Oddly enough, though, I've never heard of these friends. And I don't have a MySpace account.
It just boggles my mind that I get mail from MySpace when I don't get other e-mails. Apparently I missed a whole couple of weeks worth awhile back. I've no idea where they went, but apparently someone else got my e-mails. It's like my credit card bill. I always get the offers for new cards. Capital One has been hounding me for nearly ten years. But for some strange reason, I never get the actual bill. I do get the cell phone bill -- usually a week or two after the payment is due. S'okay -- I know when it's due every month and I just make it. (And yes, I do check to make sure that it's not gone haywire.)
That's all, really. Nothing important to say. Just a random observation on the weirdness of MySpace. (Although I am trying out a new icon -- I thought it was kind of cute.) I really have no use for a MySpace account. As best I can tell, the purpose of MySpace is for blogging and having lists of contacts. Why would I need to go there when I can do that all here?
- Posted Apr 28, 2007 5:00 am PT
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22Apr 07
For some odd reason, I've had the line 'Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, can I take your order?' stuck in my head. I think it's from an old movie I have some vague recollection of possibly having seen ten years ago. Or maybe I just saw the trailer. Who knows.
So I've been killing time watching Steven Seagal flicks (it's great background schlock) the last couple days, and I've noticed something. Many of the more recent ones don't have much of a plot. I watched Today You Die yesterday, and I really have no clue what happened. I only remember two things: It was very brutal, and they blew junk up. They blew a LOT of junk up. And I realised something about myself. I like when they blow junk up. There's some bad audio dubbing, some highly unlikely action scenes, and a lot of things that don't make any sense -- but they blow junk up.
I've been thinking I should maybe branch out a bit. My entire collection is (for the most part) comprised of action, horror and comedy. And lately, it's cheesy, straight to DVD action. But then I stop for a moment and realise that I don't want to branch out. Remember the good old days when action movies were action movies? Larger than life heroes, charismatic bad guys, no real plot ... and junk got blew up. Explosions are a must. I'm not big on violence for the sake of violence (I need at least a semblance of a reason), but I like explosions.
Many of the modern day actions I run across that are big-game movies don't have the wham-bam power of the old ones. Some of them are great movies, but it seems that more time is spent developing the characters' identities than on the film as a whole. Remember Ben Affleck's Changing Lanes? (I don't blame you if you don't -- only decent Ben Affleck action I've ever seen is Reindeer Games.) It was marketed as an action, but they wasted far too much time telling me various characters' motivations. I didn't care. I just wanted them to get to the point. I either want my action movies to make me laugh, or to make me look at a climax scene and go 'nice fireball!'. I think that's why I'm watching Steven Seagal's lately.
That, and the man relaxes me somehow. He's got that whole calm, Zen-like thing happening. He's like the killer in those eighties stalker films. The bad guys are all running around pell-mell, and he casually walks in, picks 'em all off one by one, and walks out. If I was ever to wage war on a small hostile nation, I'd be taking any of Steven Seagal's characters, Rambo and Axel Foley. While Axel is distracting them, Rambo and 'Nameless Seagal Character' can go in and save the day. Of course, with my luck, I'd walk in there with Deuce Bigalow, Napoleon Dynamite and Roseanne Connor.
No point, really. Just kind of a ramble. My queue is clear and I have nothing pressing, so I'm going to relax with a cheesy action and some Pharaoh. Ever since I saw this amazing special on ancient Egypt, I've been craving all things Egyptian. I'm thinking of actually using that library card I carry around in my wallet to pick up some books. They showed all these old artifacts from ancient Egypt, and it just amazes my little brain to think that something that is thousands of years old is still clearly identifiable. All things being equal, though, don't mummify me. That process kind of creeps me out.
- Posted Apr 22, 2007 12:20 am PT
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